4.1 User & Expert Interviews
Primary research consisted of 36 design research interviews, each lasting an average of 60 minutes, and conducted over 3 months between October 2015 and December 2015 in New York City, and between January 2016 and February 2016 in Manchester, UK, covering:
- 25 User Interviews with immigrants and locals
- 11 Expert Interviews
Participants were recruited by venturing into ethnic enslaves or community areas such as shopping malls to reach out to immigrants, referral from one interviewee to the other (especially for refugees who were harder to reach), and experts through public events such as Creative Mornings and university public lectures, or referral as well.
The interviews were semi-structured, so that besides maintaining enough structure to cover essential topics under investigation, there was still freedom to follow new lines of inquiry brought up by the interviewee during the course of interview (University of Surrey, 2009).
During the interviews, interview tools were used, such as discussion guide, journey maps, ‘draw it’ and card sorting exercises, and sacrificial prototypes to engage my interviewees and understand their perspectives better. The discussion guide was an artifact of the interview plan; it contained the interview structure and discussion topics for the interview, which helped with staying on track during the session with the interviewee, and allowing sufficient time for unplanned questions (Cooper-Wright & Holland, 2015).
Journey maps were useful for helping interviewees visualise on a time scale and recall events that happened e.g. immigrants’ journey from home country to settling down in host country; after which we could zoom into specific moments for furthur discussions (Bodine, 2015). ‘Draw it’ (ideo.org, n.a.) helped interviewees to organise their thoughts visually and spur deeper conversations from there e.g. to draw a typical day at work, or an object that represented their immigrant experience; card sorting exercises helped to uncover what mattered most to the interviewee (ideo.org, n.a.).
Lastly, sacrificial concepts developed around music and virtual museum were used to obtain user responses to early concepts and answer specific research questions.
Interviewee Profiles
The task of defining who was an immigrant could be complex, as pointed out in the literature review. The intent for showing the following profiles was to demonstrate the wide spectrum of interviewees whose views were sought for this research. Therefore a simplified categorisation was adopted for the classification below. For the purpose of this research, those who were native-born were considered ‘locals’, and all others ‘immigrants’. Additional information about ethnic heritage is provided in the column ‘background’ to mitigate the loss of details due to the simplified classification.
Findings from User (Immigrants & Locals) Interviews
During my interviews with immigrants and locals, I heard about what immigrants went through in order to settle down in a new country, and locals experienced to get to know immigrants.
Immigrants recounted what happened which led them to flee to US or UK. Many expressed the need to feel safe and socially included. But once people found their own communities, they tend not to welcome or bother to engage others. Both immigrants and locals moved on to other priorities (e.g. earning a living, spending time with family & friends). Some described feelings of depression while being alone during the day in an unfamiliar, foreign environment; others felt safer. It was painful for some immigrants to recall their past experiences — one interviewee broke down in tears while recounting her experience of helping other refugees in need, and she questioned, ‘Where’s the humanity?’
‘We were at house in Paris for summer when the Kuwait war erupted in 1990. Many of the upper mid class were away during that time. My best friend’s mum called to inform us about it. We had a house in Paris, so it was easier to settle and stay in Paris. I studied in American International School of Paris, for 2 years till the war ended. But my parents separated. Mum returned to Texas, and Dad returned to Kuwait. I went with Mum for high school in Texas. Then in 2009, I tried staying in Kuwait, but I wasn’t used to it after trying for 9 months. So I went to New York and stayed for 15 years. I used to my dad, cousins, and best friend in Kuwait, once a year — now it is once a few years.’ — Participant 1
‘I felt strange. I stood out from everyone — skin colour, language…’ — Participant 15
‘Weekdays after work, I’d spend time with my partner; on weekends, I’d meet my friends.’ — Participant 13
‘The Afghans just stayed within their own, they are not well integrated.’ — Participant 2
‘People had their own communities already, there was no need to assimilate.’ — Participant 1
‘I want to meet new friends, but too tired (from work).’ — Participant 14
The older generations had a strong sense of equity, and were concerned for future generations’ well-being. A local retiree shared that he had been contributing taxes to this country, so if others simply came into the country illegally to enjoy the welfare benefits without having contributed anything at all, that would be unfair.
‘I am against illegal immigrants. They are just fleecing the system.’ — Participant 23
‘I am worried for the future generations of this country.’ — Participant 22
Language barriers impeded cross-cultural understanding and social integration.
‘Lack of proficiency in English is a barrier to communications’ — Participant 7
‘Depended on cultural networks to find job.’ — Participant 8
‘Was on bus and heard so many different languages — I don’t feel a sense of belonging to this country anymore. The immigrants would talk among themselves in their own languages and we don’t understand.” — Participant 25
Findings from Expert Interviews
The experts talked about how many refugee crises had happened in the past and the political response in general was found wanting.
‘Refugee crises had happened before, and the public response to them had been typically negative in general. The amount of fear-mongering and how people believed it readily was frightening. Education is the way to help resolve this. Educating people about the facts, and not what was being reported in tabloids or hearsays from anecdotes.’ — Expert 1
‘The impression that people have of refugees was that of people without proper documents having riots and posing security problems. But refugees could be highly-trained people too, fleeing from conflicts. The amount of misinformation needs to be countered.’ — Expert 2
‘’It is easy for people to denounce what they don’t know. Americans could be an insular and self-contained group — many didn’t have passports. It can be hard for them to understand what it takes for a new person to settle in a new place.’ — Expert 3
‘There would be more waves of refugees in future, due to climate change and conflicts. So working on social integration is important’ — Expert 6
The importance of building alliances and partnerships with other organisations was important too, in order to build capabilities beyond those of the third sector to help immigrants. The supporting ecosystem now is comprehensive but fragmented.
‘I believe in building trust in current relationships (with private sector), developing partners in areas such as health, education, economic research. The organisation is working hard to lobby the US government, and increasingly in international arenas too.’ — Expert 2
‘There was a change in leadership and we are placing heavier emphasis on partner engagement now. We are not working on international partnerships yet, just focusing on affairs in NYC.’ — Expert 3
‘There are many organisations in the space of community building, whose tactics might be relevant. Groups such as Change Agency, IACD, Training for Change, Ideas, and Reboot.’ — Expert 7
‘There is a comprehensive suite of services provided by non-profit organisations serving immigrants, in areas ranging from healthcare, housing, transport, legal, and English as Second Language (ESL) training. However the industry is fragmented, and immigrants needed to be guided to the right organisation to fulfil their need. Even having a one-stop centre for each community in different borough might be difficult — it would be too big to run. ’ — Expert 5
The importance of engaging immigrants was mentioned by some experts too. The dangers of disengagement could be having them becoming recruited as terrorists, or drifting away in life.
‘There must be ways to allow people to express their dissatisfaction or anti-establishment view. An ‘us’ versus ‘them’ attitude would be unhealthy. In Australia, a ‘Team Australia’ concept was touted by government but it did not resonate with non-white people. People wanted to express that dissatisfaction.
The young are targeted by terrorist recruiters. Being vigorous and adventurous, the young could be easily lured by extremist groups so that they could be powerful, make an impact, get noticed, travel, and travel somewhere — become a hero! Those who get rejected by society would find it appealing to join other marginalized people.
To counter this, there must be opportunities for people to travel, be heard, and make an impact. Organically fuelled empowerment. This is about positivity, not about the status quo. There should be a holistic look at extremism, not just focusing on Islam.’ — Expert 4
‘My clients used to be refugees, but now they are mostly immigrants — youths who comes from low income family in China aged 16–24 years old. They are disconnected, and had no friends and not attending school. If they were not attending CMP, they would be playing computer games and surfing the Internet, or working in dead end jobs in gift shops, restaurants, bakeries — earning minimum wages’ — Expert 5
‘Flip it around, think about the bad things that could happen otherwise. Communities that were not socially mixed; unemployment, difficulty with finding jobs through word of mouth through a limited network, not getting jobs or promoted. Communities living in isolation becoming less integrated, leading to poorer health, and having more NHS services needed. Housing problems of having poor people congregate in one area, and the rich in another. The poor would work in jobs within poorer areas, while better paying jobs would be found in richer areas. There are impact on other parts of policy.’ — Expert 9
Many experts in the non-profit sector mentioned funding as a top concern which took up most of their time.
The experts also pointed out that language learning is difficult for immigrants. The language barrier could impede their participation in the political process.
‘ESL (English as Second Language) classes are expensive — a Spanish class for example cost about $700 per month. I am not aware about the technological tools being used to help though. I heard that in Norway, people are using tablets to teach language.’ — Expert 2
‘My top concerns for immigrants in NYC: language access, encouraging their participation in the political process, and representation in city council. Classes for immigrants were available, but they are busy, there is no time to keep up with lesson. Many of them are doing 2 to 3 jobs to be financially stable. Immigrant students were graduating at lower rates than native students.’ — Expert 3
Some mentioned the disconnection between immigrants and locals and some advised on setting a common interest to connect people.
‘When was the last time they met someone ‘new new’ — outside their ethnic community? Do they know their neighbours?’- Expert 7
‘To promote altruism, overtly give people a reason to connect e.g. food. But don’t bill this as promoting altruism directly, openly.’ — Expert 7
‘The key to building a community, to sustain attendance — the challenge is getting people to own it, lead something.’ — Expert 8
‘The goal is to mix people up and work towards a common goal. e.g. volunteer, projects. All of which were to be done in mixed (ethnic diversity) groups.’ — Expert 9
‘Segregation and social integration — the young people wouldn’t understand such words. Our messaging to them was about being able to learn leadership skills, to be part of a residential programme meeting new people. We have no problem filling up spaces of our programme so far.’ — Expert 9
‘We make sure there is high contact time. We target areas with anti-social and work with the police to identify peak hours of anti-social behavior and where they occur. We also listen to feedback from them, like they might get bored of soccer and want to play other sports e.g. dance, basketball’ — Expert 10
‘We are in it for the long-term. It is not a one-time, go in with cameras and then disappear thing. We don’t specifically target communities that are isolated though. We provide the opportunity for people to join, it is open to all.’ — Expert 11
Conclusions
Based on interviews conducted, a typical refugee journey could be represented in a high-level manner as below.
Many assumptions were made to simplify the journey map: that the refugee survived the journey, from origin country to neighbouring refugee camps, and obtained successful application for asylum status in host country. This process could involve moving from country to country, from one refugee camp to another, or the asylum-seeking process taking multiple years.
For a foreign student entering the country for studies, or a foreign laborer entering for work, their journey would generally involve the latter two stages (obtaining approval and settling into new community), without them having to embark on a dangerous journey fleeing from danger or living in concentration camps in order to arrive at the host country.
The scope of this research focused on the segment whereby the immigrants tried to settle down in the new community. This is the scope within which research was conducted to investigate how social integration could take place between immigrants and locals.
Based on interviews with immigrants and locals, I present below two journeys. One described a high-level experience map of an immigrant settling down in a new community, and the other described a local’s encounter with immigrants.
In both cases, both immigrants and locals felt uncomfortable initially when encountering an “unknown” — unfamiliar people who behave in strange ways according to different rules and norms. However, it was possible for both sides to reach a state of understanding and stability. Eventually immigrants got settled down in their new community — be it housing, jobs, healthcare etc.; the locals established understanding with a group of previously “unknowns”. All typically went through a period of “familiarisation” — getting to know their environments.
Based on insights below, there are three opportunity areas to explore ways to create successful “familiarisation”.
KEY INSIGHT 1: People wanted to feel safe and socially included.
But once people found their own communities, they tend not to welcome or bother to engage others. People moved on to other priorities (e.g. earning a living, spending time with family & friends),
OPPORTUNITY AREA 1: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” (Merson, 2009)
How might we encourage locals to befriend immigrants when they first arrived?
New immigrants felt lost when they first arrived in the new country, and would be open to guidance from knowledgeable locals. If locals could connect with them during this stage and help them familiarise with their new surroundings, this could help establish trust and relationships that last long after the immigrants felt settled down in the place.
KEY INSIGHT 2: The older generations held a strong sense of equity over illegal immigrants “fleecing the system”, and were concerned for future generations’ well-being.
OPPORTUNITY AREA 2: “A good education is a foundation for a better future” (Warren, 2013)
How might we assure older people over the future of their country?
The uncertainty over the future of the country seemed to have manifested itself in discriminating against immigrants. Older people were unsure whether their past contributions would be enough to sustain them in their old age, and whether their grandchildren would have a hard time. Educating people over the facts of immigration and learning from history might be useful in providing assurance over their futures.
KEY INSIGHT 3: Language barriers impeded cross-cultural understanding and social integration.
OPPORTUNITY AREA 3: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world” (Wittgenstein, 1922)
How might we help diverse groups build understanding and trust despite language barriers?
Language barriers hindered interactions across cultures. The underlying need was to enable communications and create mutual understanding.
